Adoration

 Arise and shine

Painting by Mattia Preti (1613-1699)

Arise,

shine,

for your light has come,

    and the glory of the Lord

rises upon you.

See,

darkness covers the earth

    and thick darkness

is over the peoples,

but the Lord rises upon you

    and his glory

appears over you.

Nations

will come to your light,

    and kings

to the brightness of your dawn.

[Isaiah 60:1-3]

What now is love?

Painting by Wendela Verstoep: Prophetic Heart

Recently I was reading something in Ademruimte, the new book by friend and christian psychologist Matthijs Goedegebuure. Just a few random sentences that made me think, I like to share 'm here...

"When something dramatic, something with great impact, happens in our life, we all have a first automatic response. A habit, a way of reacting.  I have asked myself today: 'What is my first automatic reaction? What is my first action? Or, what is my first thought?'

My first thought often is: 'What is the best thing to do now?', 'What is honest?' or 'What is wise?' I have a tendency to immediately search for the best solution. But the more I advance in life and years, the more I  discover that not the best solution, but love is the most important thing. I hope to reach a point in life where my first reaction will be: 'what now is love?'

Love for God and people sometimes takes me on a different route than my so called wisdom or my idea of what the best solution should be. Love is not always logical and sometimes not even fair. Love enables me to even accept stupidity or dishonesty. Love is the greatest force in life."

But the greatest of these is love

1 Corinthians 13:13

Very short sermon

Inspirational art!

Jesus is sitting at the place of highest honor next to God, pleading for us there in heaven

Romans 8:34

Last Saturday night we attended a fundraiser dinner organised by Messianic congregation Elohim Hu Ahavah to raise money for a mission trip to Israel. It was a wonderful evening under the stars with music, dance, great food and many interesting people to talk with. There was also a silent auction and we purchased an exceptional oil on canvas by local artist Michelle Honles. It is an absolutely stunning image of Jesus praying....

It was her unconventional use of yellow and orange in His prayer shawl that really caught our attention. The fact that she painted this in one day, in an artistic flow of the Holy Spirit makes it even more special! What an awesome piece of art!

We LOVE it!!

Autumn wreath

A little creativity...

After a hard day's work in the yard I decided to be a little creative and make an autumn wreath. Not that it feels like autumn here in Southern California :) but I had all this material that I picked up in thrift stores over the years; leaves, flowers, little pumpkins, everything very colorful. I just attached all these small pieces to a huge wreath that I found in the barn and... voila! I let my imagination go wild and mixed sunflowers, daisies and christmas ribbons all together into a delightful display of a new season.

Happy autumn!